May 28, 2014

I think referring to this piece as a Baby is appropriate. She sure demanded a lot of me. She’s over six months old now and just starting to gain some independence and show some of her own personality. Thank Goodness! Roughed in the ballerina with a watercolor wash. Things look pretty chunky here.I stuck with watercolor and w/c pencils for the shoes.I had to tone down the ladies orangey-ness. (It seems she likes carrots!! Haha)I didn’t touch this piece throughout February and most of March. I finally realized I couldn’t avoid the hair any longer if I wanted this finished. Studied up a bit on hair rendering. Apparently, I need to pick at least 4 colors, one highlight, one low-light and the rest in between. I am to make each strand go in the direction that it lays. With the highlight areas, I just left the white alone.Don’t judge me too hard, I still have lots to learn. But at least it’s passable. Meaning…..you know that it’s hair.As is my habit, I brought in my fine-point microns to finish the job. When I go over the colored pencil, the tip of the markers take up some of that wax……time is spent squiggling that wax off as seen here.With my skill level…this is as good as it’s going to get. So I deemed her done. Off to the frame shop. Couldn’t capture the same light cuz I wasn’t up early enough. (Pic on left from Dec, Pic on right from Today)Lessons learned:

Be careful with the amount of water used for the paper type. I’ve since found some other sturdier w/c illustration board that I want to try next.

It’s ok to pop your colors….I preferred the ballet slippers brighter, but realistically the first color was more accurate. Yea, for creative license!!

Bring in the colored pencils after the watercolor work is done. No one wants to go over colored pencils with watercolor…trust me!

Don’t expect perfection.

And the image that started this….found her on instagram.…check out user @infinitylove231

May 21, 2014

Staying consistent with the Sunglass Series…..I had a wild hare to doodle up some hair.I found the picture of this woman on pinterest and I let my freak flag fly with the hair here.I started out using watercolors. But I had to give them up because I couldn’t coordinate the colors as well with w/c as I can with markers.Just pretend you can’t see the ear….totally botched it.Besides that though……I like how she turned out. Colorful and Crazy!! Haha

May 6, 2014

I’ve been enjoying my Sunglass Series where I can color pencil the people and marker doodle on something they are wearing. When I spotted this woman wearing her hat I thought I’d draw her next. That wonderful hat gave me a lot of space for doodling.I wasn’t sure how I wanted to approach this. At first I thought of doing black and white doodles in the hat with the hat-band and the suit in color.But then I changed my mind.I didn’t want the band to compete with the hat, so black/white stripes worked well.Since the underside of the hat doesn’t get as much light, I applied a light brown-gray in watercolor.This skin took more time than I thought it should, but there are a lot of little variations to the colors thru the neck and the bust that I didn’t realize until I tried to sketch it.If I would use smooth paper then we wouldn’t see all that grain coming thru the colored pencil portions. But I like watercolor paper cuz it’s thick and can take all kinds of abuse!

About Me

By day...I work in the Healthcare field, where every .. i.. has to be dotted and every ..t.. has to be crossed. This blog is the place where I can let myself go and have some fun.
I am on a journey. A journey I started a long time ago, but
it has been a bit sidetracked with Navy Wife relocations and raising kids. I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and I have got some time for me. No, I will not be one of those moms walking around the house with Empty Nest Syndrome, I have got way too much to do, to learn, to create. Sure, once the kids are gone I will miss them....but hey, there is always the phone, the email, the texting and the Plane tickets! I love my life and my family and It is fun moving into this new stage.
I am into Digital Scrapbooking, photography, journaling, Art Journaling and Drawing. I am a do-it-yourselfer and I am trying to teach myself to draw. I am finding that it takes a lot of patience, lots of practice and a good eraser!
And if you're really curious there's a 3 part Interview by Eileen:
HERE
All the best,
Eden